Enhancing Self-Efficacy: Pathway to Improve Academic Achievement Motivation

Abstract

The present research aimed to study the effect of self-efficacy and gender pattern on intrinsic, extrinsic and amotivation-motivational orientations of academic achievement motivation among adolescents. A sample of 102 students (51males and 51 females), in the age-range of 14-17 years, was selected randomly from various educational institutions of tri-city (Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula).The measures used were Self-Efficacy Questionnaire for Children (Muris, 2001) and Achievement Motivation Scale-School Version (Vallerand et. al., 1992). A 2X2 factorial design was used to analyze the data. The analysis indicated that highly efficacious students were intrinsically motivated than did their counterparts. However, students who have no faith in their capabilities were extrinsically motivated and amotivated. Furthermore, gender differentiation and interaction effect did not make any contribution to the motivational orientations of achievement motivation. It seems logical to understand that poor belief in one’s ability is a driving component of feeling disinterested towards academic activities. It is noteworthy that amotivation which reflects strong feeling of incompetence and expectancies of uncontrollability is highly detrimental for school achievement. These findings can serve to provide practical guidelines for designing of interventions to enhance self-efficacy and achievement motivation.